Due to Japan’s inhumane treatment of the POWs, as many as 11,000 died on the Death March. And yet, the survivors’ suffering was not over – more than 20,000 POWs died in the first two months of imprisonment at Camp O'Donnell. Thousands more died of malnourishment, disease, exhaustion, physical abuse, or execution in this and other Japanese POW camps.
More POWs later died on what survivors called "hell ships." Packed into Japanese freighters, they were transported to Japan and China to work for the Japanese war industry. Locked in the overcrowded and unsanitary hulls, an estimated 1,500 POWs died from deprivation of necessities. Unfortunately, the majority of the deaths were due to drowning, after being sunk by Allied submarines and aircraft, unaware of the POWs below deck.
Only one-third of the men who defended Bataan survived the war.
Click here to return to the Bataan Death March Overview.